the misadventures of brian leery

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Bands

These are musical projects that I’ve been involved in over the years. The core of what I do is bass playing, but I’ve recently started to write more songs on the guitar and hoping to introduce more aspects of that song craft in the future.

Shelves

Shelves was probably conceived somewhere in 2008, but I only joined their lineup in early 2009. Brought together by ex-Suchness frontman, Noel, and supported by the previous Suchness guitarist, Melvin, and the original Livonia drummer, Robin, I felt like I was in the presence of giants when I got the call to play bass. It’s now the main band that I spend most of my musical efforts on. We released our eponymous debut album on glorious vinyl in March 2012, and played shows at Mosaic Music Festival, The Pigeonhole, Home Club, Prince of Wales, NUS Radio Pulze.. etc.

Penpusher
We formed Penpusher in 2011. Ave was looking for a band (of sorts) to play with, I was looking for a songwriting partner for some half-finished songs that I was trying to finish writing, and of course I’d rope in my buddy from Leeson, Thomas to play guitar and do back up (and maybe do his songs too.) It’s essentially a song-writing unit and we want to focus on songcraft more than anything else. It’s also the first project I’m involved in that has me playing guitar and doing lead vocals on certain songs (very new and scary at the same time.). In the works are an EP (Just finished tracking!) and reinterpreting the current songs with a bigger band.

From a chance meeting with Nicholas, we started talking and soon became friends. It wasn’t until the tail end of 2011 that he asked me to join his touring band, The Middle of Nowhere, as a bassplayer. By then he had already released two albums and taking original music very seriously. It’s great playing and hanging out with Nick, since I learn a lot from him, and I’m also able to use those lessons in my own songcraft.

Leeson was the first band I’d played in and was formed in 2004. We were known by other names prior to that, and had gone through a few line up changes as well. Leeson put out an experimental alternative rock EP in 2005 entitled ‘Hero Music’, then switched gears and released ‘Speed Dating’ in 2008, that featured an all new dance-poppy direction. We’ve played shows such as Baybeats’08, By The Waterfront, Stasis 10, WeekendTRIP amongst other things. Leeson agreed to go on indefinite hiatus since the end of 2010.

I first got to know Kevin somewhere in 2007, when he attended a Leeson gig, but I suppose things really solidified after he approached me to help out on bass duties for the recording of the Watchmen@Midnight EP at the end of 2008. I don’t know if The Groovy People still exist but we don’t meet up to play anymore.